The Dispute Resolution Review provides an indispensable overview of the civil court systems of different jurisdictions. In a world where commercial disputes frequently cross international boundaries, it is inevitable that clients and practitioners across the globe will need to look for guidance beyond their home jurisdictions. The Dispute Resolution Review offers the first helping hand in navigating what can sometimes, at first sight, be an unknown and confusing landscape, but which on closer inspection often deals with familiar problems and adopts similar solutions to the courts closer to home.
This eighth edition follows the pattern of previous editions where leading practitioners in each jurisdiction set out an easily accessible guide to the key aspects of each jurisdiction’s dispute resolution rules and practice, and developments over the past 12 months. The Dispute Resolution Review is also forward looking and the contributors offer their views on the likely future developments in each jurisdiction.
Collectively, the chapters illustrate the continually evolving legal landscape, responsive to both global and local developments. For instance, over the past year the EU has adopted a new regulation on jurisdiction which fortifies the freedom of parties of any nationality to choose to litigate in their preferred forum and grants member state courts discretion to stay proceedings in favour of proceedings already on foot in non-member state courts. At the other end of the spectrum, 2015 saw the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom clarify the law on penalty clauses 101 years after the seminal House of Lords’ case on this issue. But even seemingly local decisions such as this have a broad audience and can have far reaching consequences in global commerce. It is always a pleasure - and instructive for my own practice - to observe the different ways in which jurisdictions across the globe tackle common problems – sometimes through concerted action under an umbrella international organisation and sometimes individually by adopting very different, but often equally effective, local solutions.
